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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28116723">Candle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrspollifax/pseuds/mrspollifax'>mrspollifax</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>advent calendar 2020 [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red White &amp; Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Advent Calendar, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 12:13:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>631</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28116723</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrspollifax/pseuds/mrspollifax</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>They’re eating cereal by candlelight at their new dining room table.</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>advent calendar 2020 [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040538</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Candle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Advent Calendar Day 10: Candle. Time's a construct anyway, right?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>They’re eating cereal by candlelight at their new dining room table. They’re even using placemats and the fancy dishes Bea gave them as a housewarming gift - or the bowls and the spoons, at least. Casually, as adults do.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s not exactly the evening Alex had planned. This is the first Friday night they’ve both managed to be in Brooklyn at the same time. Alex has been here since Wednesday, walking the city streets and visiting the corner bodega and rearranging the furniture in the brownstone for the sole purpose of seeing Henry’s face when he came through the door this morning. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The manual labor to move everything had been worth it to see the way Henry’s eyebrows shot straight up and his mouth opened in a silent protest. Though Alex isn’t so sure when he’s putting it all back the way it was while Henry leans against the door frame, tutting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That afternoon, they’d gone shopping, bundled up against the plummeting temperatures from the snowstorm due to arrive in the evening. They visited shops Alex had mapped out earlier, ignoring the cell phone cameras and would-be paparazzi as much as possible as they collected ingredients for the dinner Alex insisted on teaching Henry to make.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have to learn to feed yourself when I’m not here,” he’d said. “Adulting is hard work.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Henry had rolled his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Also, you’re not in England anymore. You have to get used to spices,” Alex added, prompting Henry to steal the wool hat off his head and abandon Alex as his truly awful hat hair was photographed by a nearby teenage girl.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When they got home, they’d pulled out the fancy china and the nice flatware and set the table, candlesticks and all. Then Alex had grabbed Henry’s hand, pulled him into the kitchen - and the power had promptly gone out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It probably should have been predictable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The lights are still out when it's time to eat. Alex refuses to go out in the storm for takeout, and Henry has an attack of guilt over the idea of asking anyone to deliver in the snow and sleet, and so here they are. Having half-romantic, half-hilarious Friday night cereal by candlelight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex’s text alert goes off, and he pulls out his phone to check the screen. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nora says the power isn’t supposed to be back on until after midnight,” he says. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Alex looks back up, the face Henry’s making isn’t much different from the one he’d made when he walked in the door that morning. Less protest, more confusion, but definitely in the same family. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nora says?” Henry asks at last.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I texted her.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Probably something like </span>
  <em>
    <span>first power outage</span>
  </em>
  <span> with many, many exclamation points.” He reaches over and steals Alex’s phone. “Ah. In all caps, no less. And is she your secretary now? Did she call the power company?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“H.” Alex snorts a laugh. “She looked it up on the website.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You can do that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I guess they don’t cover that in prince school.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nodding slowly, Henry pockets Alex’s phone. “I notice you didn’t do it yourself, even though it’s been out a couple of hours now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is my phone in time out?” Alex asks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, darling.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex shrugs. “Remember that big white house I lived in for four years?” he asks around a mouthful of cereal. “I might have forgotten you even could look it up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah. So, adulting is hard even if you didn’t go to prince school?” Henry asks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex kicks him under the table. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Henry nudges him back. “Finish your dinner, so we can find something more interesting to commemorate our first winter blackout.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Interesting and adult?” Alex grins.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Maybe you’ll even earn your phone back,” Henry says, laughing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex leans over and kisses him on the cheek. “You’re on.”</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Tumblr: <a href="http://tulipsandtesseracts.tumblr.com">tulipsandtesseracts</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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